Salvaged Or Reused Materials

Design for reuse and a second life

Museum exhibitions are usually one-shot deals, with components custom designed and fabricated for use in only one exhibition. Few designers consider what will happen to the components when that exhibition has run its course. For example, what happens to traveling exhibitions, which often are designed and built for a three- to six-year life, when they complete their tour? Sometimes, museums will take them as semi-permanent exhibitions. Sometimes no one wants them. And what happens to their crates? They, too, are usually custom built. But what if the furniture and crates could be reused for another exhibition? Museums can design for reuse by creating an exhibition furniture vocabulary -- a modular standard for exhibit components -- that can accommodate a variety of configurations and arrangements. Furniture could be designed in such a way that surface treatments and detailing could change with each exhibition. (Excerpt from Environmental Considerations: Some Guidelines for Exhibit Developers)

Use materials that can be recycled.

Paper and paperboard, corrugated cardboard, wood, aluminum, steel, copper, glass, textiles, rubber, and some plastics can all be recycled. Plastic's recyclability is currently the most difficult to assess. The outlets available to you depend on your location and your perseverance. Ask the manufacturer if the product is recyclable and, if so, where. Call the trade associations for that industry and ask about the product's recyclability. Ask about equivalent substitutes that are more easily recycled. "Closing the loop," or turning old products into new products, means we can save energy, money, and natural resources, reduce the amount of air and water poluution we create, as well as divert useful materials from landfills. The world is a closed-loop system, too. The pollution and waste we release into the environment stays there in some form -- it doesn't just go away. It's much easier to pause and consider processes and products first, than to clean up the consequences later. (Excerpt from Environmental Considerations: Some Guidelines for Exhibit Developers)

Use recycled materials

Many of the things that you can recycle are, in turn, made into new products. Paperboard and papers, drywall, wood products, some plastic products, aluminum, and glass all can be made from recycled materials. Some of these products are more expensive than similar ones made from new resources. And some standard exhibition materials, such as plastic laminates and acrylics, are not yet made of recycled materials. But one of the most important things we all can do is to create a demand for more variety and choice in recycled products by purchasing them whenever possible. All things being equal (or nearly so), choose recycled. Once you choose to buy recycled, there are still decisions to be made. Take paper, for example. Recycled paper may contain from 10 percent to 100 percent "post-consumer waste," or paper that was actually used before. Whenever possible, choose paper with the highest percentage of post-consumer waste. When enough people demand such products, more will be manufactured. (Excerpt from Environmental Considerations: Some Guidelines for Exhibit Developers)

Design single-material products whenever possible, and design with recyclable parts

Design so that different materials can be easily separated, once their use has come to an end. The most difficult products to recycle are those that are made from a combination of materials, such as plastic-backed paper and adhesive-coated laminates, because the cost of recycling increases with addition of labor-intensive separation processes. This can make the recycled products prohibitively expensive and unmarketable. If, for example, plastic is screwed to wood rather than laminated with adhesive, both the wood and the plastic could be recycled. (Excerpt from Environmental Considerations: Some Guidelines for Exhibit Developers)

Resources

• Environmental Considerations: Some Guidelines for Exhibit Developers

• Eco Friendly Flooring Reclaimed Wood Flooring Reclaimed wood flooring milled from structural beams and timbers that were used in warehouses and factories in the early 1900s. Some of the flooring has also been salvaged from tongue/groove planks that lived their previous life also as flooring.

• For more information on recovered wood, see Rapidly renewable or certified woods.

 Related Articles

• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Reinvent
• Modular Case and Wall Systems

• Life Cycle Assessments

• Waste Reduction

[originally published at GreenDesignWiki.com]